Congress nixes expanding FTC powers

Executive Summary

Congress drops a proposal to dramatically expand the Federal Trade Commission's authorities, much to the relief of the dietary supplement and other industries. Conference committee members agreed June 25 to a version of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, H.R. 4173, without a provision to allow FTC to adopt regulations via Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking procedures. The Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition lobbied against the provision (1"The Tan Sheet" April 26, 2010). NPA and CRN support enhancing FTC's enforcement capabilities, but say the changes the House proposed were unfair and should not be part of legislation about unrelated issues. "There's nothing about giving FTC any additional powers that had anything to do with Wall Street," said NPA Executive Director and CEO John Gay. "We believe that there needs to be more activity by FTC going after some of the bad actors in the supplement industry," said Mike Greene, CRN's VP of governmental relations